Marine Col. Ferdinand Marcelino has decided to provide Congress and the Department of Justice the information that would provide the “missing dots in the puzzle” of the reported New Bilibid Prison drug trade that has linked Sen. Leila M. de Lima.
Accompanied in a press conference by a bevy of government lawyers led by Public Attorney’s Office chief Persida Acosta yesterday, Marcelino revealed that he has executed a six-page affidavit containing first hand information of what he knew about the NBP drug trade, now the object of a Justice Committee probe in the House of Representatives.
“I was not forced, I was not coerced or threatened to offer myself to testify against Sen. De Lima,” Marcelino stated.
“This is my own initiative because I really consider that I owe it to the next generation, I think I owe it to my family to come out with the truth about this,” he added.
Marcelino refused to reveal in detail the contents of his affidavit that has reportedly reached the desk of Justice Secretary Vitaliano N. Aguirre II, who has personally supervised the probe into De Lima’s alleged involvement in the drug trade at the NBP in Muntinlupa City.
He also disclosed that he had sent to the Senate a letter detailing the drug trafficking operations in the country.
Saying that he is willing to testify before any chamber of Congress, Marcelino claimed that pieces of information he knew about the NBP drug deals confirm the testimonies of witnesses who have already been presented in the on-going House hearings.
Most of the witnesses have implicated De Lima, her driver, Ronnie Dayan, and convicted kidnapper Jaybee Sebastian to the drug trafficking operations run by NBP inmates.
Meanwhile, lady lawmakers yesterday branded as “unnecessary” and “immaterial” the proposed presentation of the three purported sex videos of De Lima before congressional hearings.
Gabriela party-list Rep. Emmi de Jesus and Kabataan party-list Rep. Sarah Elago said they did not share the view of House Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez who is in favor of showing the intimate videos before the House probe.
De Jesus agreed with De Lima that the playing the supposed videos at any congressional inquiry is “violative of the rights of any person in any forum whether legal, inter-personal, social, professional, or political.” (Ben R. Rosario and Charissa M. Luci)
